Ironblade

Because, quite simply, that is NOT the goal. The goal is to make more names available to people who play the game more frequently or consistently. You're describing a side effect, not the purpose. And every change to any game is going to upset some people. This question here is: Does the policy have more pros than cons? I think the policy has MARGINALLY more pros than cons. In a perfect world, where the existing software could support any reasonable plan, I could come up with a better system. But the underlying software doesn't allow a perfect solution. It doesn't even allow a 'really good' solution. The best it can offer is the system people are arguing about which, as I said, I think is slightly preferable to doing nothing.

Here's something else that's not as widely known. There is a second trial, like Death From Below, called Drowning In Blood. It's for level 15+ and it ALSO gives buffs at the end that last for one week of in-game time or until you hit level 30. Run DFB for the buff, then run DIB before you hit 22 and you're set for a while. I hardly ever see people looking for members for the DIB trial, though.

People forget things. That's life. They can forget how combat works, how the market works, even what their password is. The fact that someone might forget something is thoroughly irrelevant because we can guarantee that someone is going to forget it. But sure, dismiss me as a contrarian who likes to argue because I don't agree with you.

But what if you're NOT playing lowbies and you're NOT there for the merits? When the task force is a weekly target, level 50 characters get a Notice of the Well and progress on the assisting badges. So there is absolutely a set of players who are there for the Notices or badges. I can't begin to speculate what percentage of the task force runners this applies to, but some of the people doing the weeklies definitely fall into this category.

Frankly, there is a lot of content that needs to have the merit rewards adjusted. As an example, on a strong soloing character, I can run the first chapter of the first Signature Story Arc in about 5-1/2 minutes. Running the final chapter, on the game character, takes about 40 minutes. Yet they have the exact same reward table. Rather than the current system where the default is 5 merits, but you get quadruple merits once per week, each chapter should have a base merit reward based on average completion time with a once-per-week bonus of perhaps 15.

Worth noting, since you're apparently trying to max out recharge - some sets give a 7.5% recharge bonus. This is different and distinct from the Luck of the Gambler 7.5% bonus. So you can have *TEN* bonuses at the 7.5% level as long as five are from LotG and five from other sources.

Highly unlikely. Significant changes like this are generally put right in the players faces with an in-game pop-up when they log in. Not just a link to the patch notes. Important changes are put right in the pop-up. And if they can't be bothered to read something that is prominently presented in the game, tough. That's like the people who never read the terms and conditions and use that as a defense when they break the rules.

Good news! One of the new features for the 'New Player Experience' is that you will automatically be introduced to the contact for the invention tutorial when you hit level 10. This was prompted by the influx of new players and is currently on the test server so it should go live within a couple weeks. The tutorial is decent and I recommend everyone run it once to learn the ropes. Actual text from the patch notes: "When training to level 10, a pop-up will inform you how to begin the Invention tutorial (this pop-up will also automatically unlock the Invention tutorial contact relevant to your faction)."

No, Yomo is correct. Everyone literally CAN do it. If it's privilege in any way at all, it's the privilege of having more experience with the game. It seems to me this is common to all games: you start out not being very good at it. You don't know how to make money. You don't know the enemy powers. You don't know the mechanics of the game engine. You don't know the enemy AI. Out of all the activities in the game, you don't even know which you enjoy or if you will enjoy any of it. Play and discover.

Eh, it comes down to experience. I've made so many of every AT that I have a pretty good idea how everything should be. How confident am I that the character is slotted very well? 100% certain. How confident am I that the slotting is optimal? Don't know and don't care.

BORING. I was hoping for something more like this guy.

That wiki is out of date garbage that has never been updated, had gotten infected with malware, and should be avoided at all costs. The Homecoming wiki says, in multiple places, that Katie Hannon awards 26 merits. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Katie_Hannon_Task_Force Huh, difference between shards, maybe? Because that has not been my experience AT ALL. I never have any problem recruiting for Tarikoss and rarely stealth any of it and NEVER stealth the final map.

Perhaps, during the character creation it only checks to see if the name is already taken by another player. Then, when you try to actually enter the game, it checks against another list of names that are used by characters in-game or simply prohibited for various reasons. That's my best guess.

You'll surely be happy to hear that it's considerably easier to make money and most stuff is cheaper than it was back on live. Plus, there's a new update on the test server that adds some features to the 'New Player Experience' since there has been a large influx of new players due to the announcement of Homecoming reaching an official licensing agreement with NCSoft. Also, be sure to visit the Pay2Win Vendor. There is one standing in Atlas Park, on the left side of the big square platform (if you stand facing the front of City Hall). There are a number of free powers (like Ninja Run and the 30 second Jump Pack), many cheap ones (like the jet packs) and some pricey but useful ones (like the mission teleporter, team transporter, etc). And, worth mentioning since the offer expires at the end of this month, Yomo will give 100 million inf to anyone who asks. See this thread for info. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/43870-yomos-new-and-improved-bang-up-salmagundi-spectacular/#comment-570668

Citadel probably deserves MORE than triple the merits. Tarikoss is both easy AND fun. Citadel is easy in a bad way (kill everything in the mission, now do it again, and again) and a tedious slog. Also, the wiki says Katie Hannon awards 26 merits which, frankly, seems overly generous to me. Is that figure incorrect?

As if. Aside from brief blips, the economy has been steadily improving and is VASTLY better than it was back on live. That last part is absolutely indisputable. I would conclude you don't really understand the game economy and this is causing you to misinterpret what you see.

To be fair, there is actually a word for it: scrapperlock. That's when you get in the enemy's face and beat them until you or they die.

Maybe it gets saved along with the other stuff when you save your window layout?

The text command is /camdist nnn I don't think there's a way to permanently set a default for new characters.

Look. I made a character named 594rk because 5p4rk was taken. It just takes a little imagination. And no, I'm not kidding. That's the name of my level 50 electric/electric tank.

If you don't remember it being this rough, then your mind is playing tricks on you about 'the good old days'. The in-game economy is DRAMATICALLY better than it was back on live. Prices for the 'good stuff' on the auction house are far lower than back on live. I mean, the +3% resistance unique cost me 2 billion inf back on live. Also, it's easier than ever to earn influence. The one factor that might be working against you is the common practice of getting the free double XP buff and/or playing on one of the servers that currently has an XP buff to attract new players. These make you level faster without increasing your influence (and actually decreasing your earnings in the case of the Pay2Win XP buffs). Final note: If you're genuinely struggling, plenty of people will throw money at you. Go to the thread linked below for info on how to have Yomo send you 100 million inf. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/43870-yomos-new-and-improved-bang-up-salmagundi-spectacular/#comment-570668

I don't expect him to take you up on this offer.

Characters disappearing and deleted ones reappearing is very unlikely. However, what happens quite often is that the character LISTING, which is stored locally on your computer, gets screwed up. We've seen that happen a lot. This is the file that keeps track of the character position in the list when you move them around. The file is under /Homecoming/accounts/(your account name)/playerslot.txt There will be one of these in each account folder. Try deleting that and see if it fixes it. Deleting this file doesn't delete anything, it just removes the record of what order they are displayed in.

Oh, very good. Yes, that does seem to be what is going on. Good to know. I'm going to leave the blank lines in because it makes the file easier for me to read.

Yeah, this is the one I use. It's excellent.